Spirit-filled Manhood

Luke 1:76–80

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel. 

There’s only one commandment in the New Testament that tells us to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 5:18 says, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.” John the Baptizer is the embodiment of that. He wasn’t controlled by substances; he was controlled by the Spirit.

When you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit regenerates you. You’re born again, and He takes up residence in you and gives you a new heart, a new mind, a new nature, new desires, and a new life. The Bible calls that being baptized or sealed in the Spirit (Acts 1:5; Ephesians 1:13).

Every true Christian is filled with the Holy Spirit in this sense. As we see with Zechariah, Elizabeth, John, and other people in the Bible, however, there can be multiple, unique fillings of the Holy Spirit that occur throughout the course of life. These fillings are empowering experiences for the believer to experience more of God’s power at work in and through them in love, power, service, healing, deliverance, and victory.

Through faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit will take up residence in you so that you can live a life under the control and power of the Holy Spirit, as John did and as Jesus did during His life on earth.

Jesus compared the Holy Spirit to the wind (John 3:8). Like the wind, the Holy Spirit is always flowing. To be filled with the Holy Spirit simply means that we live our lives like a ship with a sail. When our sail is up, we allow the Holy Spirit to fill us, direct our life, and lead us where He wants us to go, to become who He wants us to be, and to do what He wants us to do. Our sail comes down through unrepentant sin, unbelief, clinging to lies rather than truth, foolish doctrine, and bad life decisions, all of which “quench the Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:19).

Be filled with the Holy Spirit. Put your sail up. Repent, believe, read your Bible, pray, submit, and be in community with God’s people. In this way, God will fill you, lead you, guide you, and empower you. He is willing, and if we will avail ourselves to His presence and power, He will fill us.

Without the Holy Spirit, Christianity becomes nothing but a list of dos and don’ts. You either live a decent life and become proud as a result, or you fail to measure up and fall into despair. Neither result leads to the kind of humble joy that comes from the Holy Spirit.

John was filled with the Holy Spirit; that’s how he did it. There is no secret. God’s power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). God’s power enables us to be who we cannot be and do what we cannot do because it’s God power, not ours. The Christian life is a supernatural life of God at work in us and through us.

Is your sail up or down? Do you have a relationship of trust and love with the Holy Spirit? If not, ask for prayer from other Christians. If so, thank the Holy Spirit for His specific work and guidance in your life.

Luke 7:28

“I [Jesus] tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John”

If we took a poll to name the greatest person history has ever known, it’s highly unlikely that John the Baptizer would even crack the top ten or top thousand. Jesus is in a category of His own: God incarnate. But the Bible is clear that John is preeminent among the rest of us who are not members of the Trinity.

First of all, we read in Luke 1:15, that John “will be great before the Lord.” Jesus makes it even clearer a few chapters later saying, “I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John” (Luke 7:28).

This is an incredible statement, especially when you consider the fact that John spent the majority of his life living in obscurity. He began his public ministry in his late twenties or early thirties, and although he drew a lot of attention, it only lasted a few months before Jesus showed up. John was thrown in prison shortly thereafter, where he was beheaded as a young man.

What was so great about this bug-eating, honey-chugging, gospel-preaching, sinner-baptizing eccentric? From Zechariah’s prophesy and elsewhere in the Gospels, we can glean at least seven aspects of John’s greatness and true greatness in the sight of God. 

John came from Spirit-filled parents
Both John’s mother, Elizabeth, and his father, Zechariah, were filled with the Holy Spirit. In Luke 1:41 we read, “Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit” and then prophesies over Mary. In Luke 1:67, “Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied” over his son at birth. Luke tells us on numerous occasions that Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit throughout his Gospel. Simply put, being Spirit-filled means to be like Jesus by God’s power.

John was filled with the Holy Spirit
John himself was also filled with the Holy Spirit. Before John’s birth, the angel Gabriel said, “He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15). The Bible also says, “The hand of the Lord was with him” (Luke 1:66). That’s another way of saying that the Holy Spirit was present with him, through him, and in him through the course of his life.

John did not become the greatest man who ever lived through morality and good behavior, but by the power of the Holy Spirit. As we look at the life of John, the point is not to merely do what John did, but to be transformed through, filled with, and empowered by the same Holy Spirit who made John great and gave him great ministry. The Spirit will make you moral, but that’s a by-product and not the main thing. His goal is not to just make you better, but to make you new.

How is your personal relationship with the Holy Spirit? How can your personal relationship with the Holy Spirit improve?